Method and device for publishing cross-network user behavioral data

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to summarizing cross-network user behavioral data. The summarizing cross-network user behavioral data may particularly include publishing the data to one or more data structures that become accessible to a server hosting an authorized domain when a user accesses the authorized domain.

RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 60/637,685, filed 20 Dec. 2004, which is incorporated byreference.

This application is related to commonly owned U.S. application Ser. No.10/289, 123, entitled “Responding to End-User Request for Information ina Computer Network” by inventors Eugene A. Veteska, David L. Goulden,and Anthony G. Martin, filed on 5 Nov. 2002. The related application isincorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to summarizing cross-network userbehavioral data and further relates to restoring damaged datastructures, either data structures summarizing cross-network userbehavioral data or data structures remotely identifying to logic runningon a user computer. The summarizing cross-network user behavioral datamay particularly include publishing the data to one or more datastructures that become accessible to a server hosting an authorizeddomain when a user accesses the authorized domain. The restoring ofdamaged data structures may particularly include automatically detectingdeletion of or damaged to data structures and restoring the damaged datastructures.

Advertising is most successful when it matches the viewer's desires.When the viewer uses a client computer to surf the web and visitwebsites hosted by servers, advertising can be targeted. One way totarget users is to provide sponsored links in response to a search,using a search engine such as the engines provided by Google and Yahoo.Another way is to trigger advertising when a user visits a website, forinstance using a so-called web beacon. Cookies can be used to identify auser that is searching or visiting a website and match the user to aserver-side database that selects advertising to deliver. Server-sidedatabases currently reflect information collected by servers connectedto websites that users visit. Websites that are aggregated into aparticular server-side database can be described as belonging to a userbehavior collection network.

An opportunity arises to better target users, taking advantage of clientsoftware running on the client computer. Client-side software canmonitor a user's web browsing activity, regardless of whether websitesvisited belong to a first or second user behavior collection network orno network at all. New technology can publish user behavior data duringbrowsing and reduce or eliminate reliance on matching the user to theserver-side database.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to summarizing cross-network userbehavioral data. The summarizing cross-network user behavioral data mayparticularly include publishing the data to one or more data structuresthat become accessible to a server hosting an authorized domain when auser accesses the authorized domain. Particular aspects of the presentinvention are described in the claims, specification and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a client computer interacting witha server and a behavior responsive server.

FIG. 2 illustrates a schematic diagram of a computer network.

FIG. 3 illustrates browsing to a search engine “FindersKeepers”.

FIG. 4 shows a browser displaying search results.

FIG. 5 depicts a page in a familiar browser for a “Search+” web site.

FIG. 6 is an example of a cookie that stores the most recent commercialkeyword of interest.

FIG. 7 is an example of summary data maintained by the behavior watcherthat may be written to persistent memory.

FIG. 8 illustrates a bit string further summarized by category.

FIG. 9 illustrates buckets that may be applied to recency of usingsearch words, clicking through, entering URL destinations or otherindications of user interest.

FIG. 10 illustrates buckets that can be applied to user categoryinvolvement.

FIG. 11 illustrates how a category ID can be associated with both thecategory name and a revenue priority.

FIG. 12 illustrates interaction among the client computer, a server anda reported-behavior responsive server.

FIG. 13 depicts one embodiment of information flow among the behaviorwatcher, the browser, one or more servers, one or more reported-behaviorresponsive servers, persistent memory, and cookie memory.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following detailed description is made with reference to thefigures. Preferred embodiments are described to illustrate the presentinvention, not to limit its scope, which is defined by the claims. Thoseof ordinary skill in the art will recognize a variety of equivalentvariations on the description that follows.

To illustrate an environment in which the present invention may beuseful, we point to and incorporate by reference U.S. application Ser.No. 10/289,123, entitled “Responding to End-User Request for Informationin a Computer Network” by inventors Eugene A. Veteska, David L. Goulden,and Anthony G. Martin, filed on 5 Nov. 2002. Some of the discussion thatimmediately follows is borrowed from the prior application, which iscommonly owned, but much is recast to a new paradigm of assembling userprofile information client-side and publishing it using cookies.

Although embodiments of the present invention are described herein inthe context of the Internet, the present invention is not so limited andmay be used in other data processing applications.

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a client computer 100 interactingwith a server 130 and a behavior responsive server 132. In FIG. 1, anend-user on a client computer indicates their interest in a subject bysubmitting a search request to a search engine, typing a URL or clickingon a link or banner ad. Their interest becomes a request across on anetwork such as the Internet. A search engine may perform anInternet-wide search, or a search limited to a particular web site ordomain name, or a search limited in some other way. The search requestmay be a query comprising one or more keywords, for example. Theoriginal search engine server 130 responds to the search request bysending a search result to the client computer 100. The search resultmay include a list of documents (e.g., web pages), links to documents,or other information relating to the keywords. A specific example of thejust described scenario is an end-user typing the keyword “car” in asearch engine and receiving back links to web sites that talk about carclubs, exotic cars, car racing, and like information.

A user submits a search request because of the user's interest in atopic. To make good use of the information about a user's interest, abehavior watching and/or behavior summarizing program 120 resident inthe client computer listens for requests, for instance made using abrowser 110 or other hyperlink enabled programs such as word processorsor presentation programs. It listens for requests for information suchas a search request, a click-through on a banner ad, or entry into thebrowser or click through of a destination URL. When the behaviorwatching program 120 detects that an end-user is performing a search orotherwise indicating their interest in a web site or subject, thebehavior watching program records the interest. The interest may berecorded to program memory or to a persistent memory 122. When a userclicks on an advertisement related to the end-user's search request, theprobability that the end-user will be interested in one or more relatedadvertisements increases. In the car example, just above, the behaviorwatching program may note that the search was followed by certainclick-throughs.

The behavior watcher 120 is resident in the client computer 100 so thatit can respond to an end-user's search request even when the end-useruses different search engines. That is, unlike other targetingtechniques that only work when an end-user is on a particular web site,the behavior watching program observes user interest across differentsearch engines, web sites and even browsers. An end-user may obtain thebehavior watching program by itself or along with free or reduced-costcomputer programs, services, and other products.

The behavior responsive server 132 presents a new approach to providingcontent responsive to recent user behavior. User behavior has in thepast been observed using a cookie with a unique user ID that allowsserver-side tracking. Server aggregated user behavior data is compiledamong an organization of cooperating server owners. Cooperation mayrelate to ad serving (e.g., Double-Click), portals (e.g., Yahoo), searchengines (e.g., Google) or other organizational basis. Cooperation inthis sense is contractual more than technical. Server aggregated userbehavior data is used, for instance, by an ad server when a web beacon(a small, null image with a URL pointing to an ad server) contacts thead server and causes a unique user ID cookie to be transmitted. The adserver accesses a database, to update user behavior data with the newcontact. The ad server could also access data from the server aggregateddatabase, based on the unique user ID. A serious limitation of serveraggregated user behavior data is that it is limited to contacts detectedby cooperating servers when the user accesses cooperating web sites andthe user's unique user ID cookie is transmitted. Mismatches of uniqueuser IDs or multiple unique user IDs for the same user diminish theeffectiveness of server-side aggregation. The combination of client-sideuser behavior tracking 120 and a reported-behavior responsive server 132presents a new approach.

A reported-behavior responsive server 132 accepts one or more messages(e.g., cookies) that report recent user behavior as a basis for decidingamong potential messages (e.g., banner ads) which message to give theuser. The reported-behavior responsive server 132 need not access aserver-side user behavior database to decide which message to send.Those of skill in the art will recognize that the new paradigm ofreported behavior could be combined with server-side aggregation andthat that combination also would be novel.

FIG. 2 is shown a schematic diagram of a computer network. Network 200may include one or more client computers 100, one or more web servercomputers 130, one or more behavior responsive server computers 132, andother computers not shown. Intermediate nodes such as gateways, routers,bridges, Internet service provider networks, public-switched telephonenetworks, proxy servers, firewalls, and other network components are notshown for clarity. In the example of FIG. 2, network 200 includes theInternet; however, other types of computer networks may also be used.Computers may be coupled to network 200 using any type of connection 115without detracting from the merits of the present invention.

A client computer 100 is typically, but not necessarily, a personalcomputer such as those running the Microsoft Windows™, Apple Macintosh™,Linux, or UNIX operating systems. An end-user may employ a suitablyequipped client computer 100 to get on network 200 and access computerscoupled thereto. For example, a client computer 100 may be used toaccess web pages from a web server computer 130. It is to be noted thatas used in the present disclosure, the term “computer” includes any typeof data processing device including personal digital assistants, digitaltelephones, wireless terminals, and the like.

A web server computer 130 may host a web site containing informationdesigned to attract end-users surfing on the Internet. A web servercomputer 130 may host or cooperate with another server that hostsadvertisements, downloadable computer programs, a search engine andproducts available for online purchase. A web server computer 130 mayalso host or cooperate with an ad server for that deliversadvertisements to a client computer 100.

A reported-behavior responsive server computer 132 serves message unitsfor delivery to a client computer 100. The message units may containadvertisements, for example. Message units are further described below.A reported-behavior responsive server computer 132 may also hostdownloadable computer programs and files for supporting, updating, ormaintaining components on a client computer 100.

Web server computers 130 and reported-behavior responsive servercomputer 132 are typically, but not necessarily, server computers suchas those available from Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, Dell orInternational Business Machines. A client computer 100 may communicatewith a web server computer 130 or a reported-behavior responsive servercomputer 132 using client-server protocol. It is to be noted thatclient-server computing will not be further described here.

The components of a client computer 100 are not illustrated in aseparate figure, but are well-understood. In one embodiment, thecomponents of client computer 100 shown in FIG. 1 are implemented insoftware. It should be understood, however, that components in thepresent disclosure may be implemented in hardware, software, or acombination of hardware and software (e.g., firmware). Softwarecomponents may be in the form of computer-readable program code storedin a computer-readable storage medium such as memory, mass storagedevice, or removable storage device. For example, a computer-readablemedium may comprise computer-readable code for performing the functionof a particular component. Likewise, computer memory may be configuredto include one or more components, which may then be run by amicroprocessor. Components may be implemented separately in multiplemodules or together in a single module.

As shown in FIG. 1, client computer 100 may include a web browser 110and a behavior watching program 120. Web browser 110 may be acommercially available web browser or web client running on a clientcomputer 100. In one embodiment, web browser 201 is the MicrosoftInternet Explorer™ web browser. In another, it is a Mozilla, Netscape orApple web browser. Alternatively, a web enabled word processor orpresentation program may be monitored by the behavior watcher 120.

The behavior watching program 120 may be downloadable from a messageserver computer 103. Behavior watching program 120 may be downloaded inconjunction with the downloading of another computer program. Forexample, behavior watching program 120 may be downloaded to a clientcomputer 100 along with a utility program that is provided free ofcharge or at a reduced cost. The utility program may be provided to anend-user in exchange for the right to deliver messages to the end-uservia behavior watching program 120. In essence, revenue (e.g.,advertising fees) from messages delivered to the end-user helps defraythe cost of creating and maintaining the utility program. Othercomponents such as operating system components, utility programs,application programs, and the like are not shown for clarity ofillustration.

The behavior watcher 120 includes computer-readable program code thatcompiles a user profile from behavior watching. It monitors web browser120 for search requests, uniform resource locator (URLs) of web sitesvisited by an end-user surfing on the Internet and ad click-throughs.FIG. 3 illustrates browsing to a search engine “FindersKeepers”. A userinvokes a browser 310 and enters the address of the search engine in anaddress window 315. Of course, links, buttons, a search bar component ora dedicated searching program (for instance, from the systray) canconnect a user with a search engine, through a browser or other program.The address remains visible when the page for the web site is displayed.The user enters search terms “hotrod car” in a window 320. A request issent or “posted” to the search engine.

FIG. 4 shows a browser 310 displaying search results. Part of thebehavior watcher 120 may parse a search request, as part of the processof compiling a user profile. In one embodiment, the behavior watcher 120parses a search request a URL displayed in the address window of a webbrowser in response to a search request, to extract one or morekeywords. Popular search engines respond to a search request by pointingthe web browser employed by the end-user to a web page containing thesearch result. The URL of that web page may be parsed to extract thekeywords chosen by the end-user for his search. For example, performinga search for “hotrod” and “car” in a fictitious search engine referredto herein as “finderskeepers.com” will result in a web browser beingpointed to a web page with the URL,http://search.finderskeepers.com/bin/search?p=hotrod+car.

The web page with the URL“http://search.finderskeepers.com/bin/search?p=hotrod+car” contains thesearch result for the keywords “hotrod” and “car”. Knowing the URLformat employed by finderskeepers.com allows extraction of the wordsfollowing “ . . . /search?p=” and separated by “+”. String manipulationfunctions may be used to extract keywords from the URL. It is to benoted that different search engines may employ different URL formats.Accordingly, a keyword extractor component of the behavior watcher mayfirst parse the URL to determine the name of the search engine, and thenemploy parsing rules for that search engine. In the present example,keyword extractor may first parse the URL“http://search.finderskeepers.com/bin/search?p=hotrod+car” to get thename of the search engine, which is “ . . . finderskeepers.com/ . . . ”,and then apply parsing rules for finderskeepers.com. Keyword extractormay take advantage of delimiters and end of string indicators employedby a particular search engine to parse a URL. In one embodiment, keywordextractor includes parsing rules for popular search engines. The keywordextractor also may act on entry or click-throughs of URLs andclick-throughs of banner ads, to cross-reference those interestindications to key words. A keyword extractor is further described inthe application incorporated by reference.

FIG. 5 depicts a page in a familiar browser 310 for a “Search+” website. The familiar address window appears just below the button bar andabove a tool bar. A search window 520 accepts keyword searches. Searchresults 521A, 521B are displayed in the body of the browser. Banner ads,which a user is welcome to click through, are positioned at the top 531and right side 531B of the display.

Referring back to FIG. 4, a keyword extractor also may include a keywordfile. In one embodiment, keyword file is a text file containing a listof relevant keywords referred to as “an include list” and a list ofnon-relevant keywords referred to as an “exclude list”. Note thatkeyword file may have also have an include list but not an exclude listor vice versa. Keyword file may be downloadable from a server computer130 to ensure that client computer 100 always has the most currentkeyword file. Keywords in the include list can be assigned to categoriesof interest, whereas keywords in the exclude list have no correspondingcategories of interest. Keywords in the include list are processed by akeyword processor, whereas keywords in the exclude list are notprocessed. In one embodiment, keyword processor processes a keyword bysending the keyword to message server computer 130 to obtain furtherinformation about the keyword. By first examining the exclude listbefore sending keywords to message server computer 103, keywords thathave no corresponding message units are identified at client computer100, thereby minimizing traffic to message server computer 103.Likewise, traffic to message server computer 103 may be minimized byfirst determining if a keyword is in the include list before sending thekeyword to message server computer 103. Table 1 shows the contents of anexample keyword file 254. TABLE 1 Include List Exclude List hotrod papercar the books for computer Britney cellular . . . sports . . . wine . .. . . . . . .

In the example of Table 1, the exclude list includes non-relevant wordssuch as commonly used words that are too general to be useful. Theexclude list may also include words that have no commercial value. Forexample, “Britney” may have no commercial value to most advertisersexcept those affiliated with or licensed by Britney the pop-star.

In the example of Table 1, the include list includes relevant words. Inone embodiment, a word is considered relevant if there is acorresponding message unit for that word. For example, the word“computer” may be relevant if there is a message unit containing anadvertisement for a personal computer. Similarly, the word “book” may berelevant if there is a message unit relating to books.

Data collected by the behavior watcher 120 is illustrated by FIGS. 5-11.Data is collected to generate a client-side profile. These profilesallow ad servers, which receive reported user behavior data, to improvead performance. Advertisers will pay more for ads that are directed tointerested customers than for ads that are distributed randomly.Moreover, ad impressions that generate click-throughs generate morerevenue than ads that are displayed but evoke no response. Adperformance can be improved either by better targeting or greatersuccess in generating click-throughs.

A client-side profile includes things like category visits, searches,user identification, language and time zone. Indications of userinterest are assigned to categories. In one embodiment, 200-300categories are recognized. Of course, fewer or more categories might berecognized. The more categories recognized, the more data bits requiredto store category IDs. Potentially, categories could be organizedhierarchically. Recency may be recorded by time bins, such as within thelast hour, 1-2 hours, 2-4 hours, 4-24 hours, 1-7 days, 7-30 days, 31-60days. Alternatively, bins or categories for 7-14 days, 0-5 minutes, 5-15minutes, 15-30 minutes and 30-60 minutes may be of interest. Searchesfor key words of commercial interest may be more important than someother indications of user interest. The behavior watcher 120 may keeptrack of the last commercial keyword entered in a search and a timebucket for the last commercial keyword entered. Over a certain outerhistory limit, the time bucket may be empty. Machine-related informationmay include a unique machine ID, language settings, time zone of theuser, and installation date of the relevant software. Data stored eitherto persistent memory 122 or cookie memory 124 may can be compressed andencrypted to save space and prevent hacking. Compression, beyond thecategorization described, and encryption schemes are well known and notdescribed here. Cookies, at least, should include version number so thatthe server receiving the cookie will understand how to interpret thecookie. Other header information may be supplied as desired. Cookiestracking user behavior are written by the behavior watcher 120, asopposed to the server 130.

Machine information is one type of data that may be stored in persistentmemory 122 and cookies 124. The information associated with the machinemay include version of the cookie, the time written, a unique ID, alocale (such as a ZIP code, area code or something similar), user's timezone, and an application name, version and installation time. Machineinformation may be rewritten to memory every 24 hours, every new day, oron some other periodic basis. It may be stored as columns separated bydelimiters, then encrypted and compressed.

The behavior watcher may track and summarize visits. It may record, suchas to persistent memory 122, each indication of user interest, includinguse of key words in searches, entry of URLs and click-throughs of URLsand banner ads. Banner ads may be segregated into regular banner ads,site exit banner ads that are triggered when leaving a particular URL,brander banner ads that are triggered when visiting a first URL, thendisplayed in visiting a second URL, and run of network banner ads thatare triggered based on a count of navigations from one URL to the next.

FIG. 6 is an example of a cookie that stores the most recent commercialkeyword of interest. This may be the most recent commercial keyword ofinterest from a search or a keyword associated with a URL orclick-through. More than one recent commercial keyword of interest maybe stored in one or more cookies, following the example of FIG. 6. Oneattribute or field of this cookie is the version of the crumb 602.Another is the time written 604, which may be expressed in seconds from1970 to the time the cookie is written. A commercial flag 606 may beused to categorize the keyword type, for instance between key words thatare of current commercial interest and key words that are for sale. Thekeyword may be included 608, either in text or as a shorthand code. Acharacter set 610 such as UFT-8 may be included to assist with decodingof the keyword 608. This may be important in international applications.

FIG. 7 is an example of summary data maintained by the behavior watcher120 that may be written to persistent memory 122. In this example, acategory ID 802 is a shorthand for a particular category. Bins areallocated for a current period 702, such as a day. The periods may be ofequal length for different lengths. In one embodiment, a bit stringimplements the bins. A history of 60 days may be implemented by 60 bitsplus storage for a category ID. Each bin corresponds to a particulartime segment. A bit flag indicates whether there was activity related tothe category during the particular time segment. At a regular timecorresponding to the shortest period represented by any bin, the bitstring is updated. Data is shifted into older bins, making room in themost recent bin. Data regarding recent activity is summarized into themost recent bin, labeled zero in the figure. If bins represent unequalamounts of time, special provisions are made at the boundaries betweenshorter and longer time bins, either algorithmically or by allocatingadditional storage. For instance, activity during any one-hour segmentduring a preceding day may result in setting the bit flag in a day-longtime segment. The day-long time segment is flag “0” only if the hoursegment flag at midnight is “0” when the midnight update takes place.This is an example of an algorithmic provision at the boundary between aone-hour segment and a day-long segment. Alternatively, storage may beallocated for bins to record the number of visits in a particular timesegment. This may significantly increase the amount of storage required,without necessarily changing how a reported-behavior aware server 132responds. Compact storage is preferred when there are hundreds ofcategories and the practical limit for the size of a cookie is 2K to 4Kbytes. Cookies can be sent to a server that archives user activity data.The user activity data can be used for analysis or targeting of ads.With the right user ID information, the user activity data could bematched to data from other sources, such as shopper loyalty programs ormarket research programs. A bit string can be further summarized bycategory, shown in FIGS. 8-10.

FIG. 9 illustrates buckets that may be applied to recency of usingsearch words, clicking through, entering URL destinations or otherindications of user interest. The most recent visit is recorded bymembership in a particular bucket. Fifteen or 16 buckets can beindicated with four bits. In the figure, the buckets are of unequallength. A single, most recent visit record such as illustrated by FIG. 6or an entry kept in memory can be used to assign a category to aparticular bucket.

FIG. 10 illustrates buckets that can be applied to frequency of visits.When the bit string of FIG. 7 is organized by days, activity in acategory can be assigned to buckets of different visit frequencies, suchas 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5, 6 to 10, 11 to 30, or 31 to 60 days out of thelast 60 days in which the user indicated interest. The number of bitsset in the bit string is counted and summarized using thiscategorization, as a measure of user category involvement.

With the categorical coding of recency and user category involvement inmind, we turn to FIG. 8. A single cookie may record data for manycategory ID's 802. For each category ID, three or more metrics of userinterest may be recorded. One or more recency 804 categories can berecorded. The recording of recency can be applied to key words or otherkinds of user interest indications, described above. One or morefrequency 806 categories can be recorded, applied to key words or otherkinds of user interest indications. Banner clicks 808 can be separatelycategorized by recency, frequency or both. The comments in column 810are editorial comments to explain the data in the table. Category ID98409 experienced heavy and recent user interest. Category ID 65625experienced heavy user interest last month. Category ID 68530experienced light, recent user interest. Category 147374 experiencedlight activity last month, which probably also should be reflected by anonzero value under frequency 806.

The behavior watcher 120 preferably sorts the category historyinformation in FIG. 8 so that the most important categories are listedfirst. Alternatively, the system could leave the category sorting to thereported-behavior responsive server 132. As illustrated in FIG. 11, acategory ID 1102 can be associated with both the category name 1104 anda revenue priority 1106. It may be useful to sort category historyinformation by revenue priority 1106, especially if only a portion ofthe client-sided user behavior data is transmitted to areported-behavior responsive server 132.

FIG. 12 illustrates interaction among the client computer 100, a server130 and a reported-behavior responsive server 132. A browser 110 orsimilar software on the client computer 100 accesses a server 130.Server 130 sends back a web page 1240, which includes embeddedreferences to addresses 1230 and 1232. When the browser 110 accesses webpage components identified by the addresses, it may send cookiesidentified with those addresses 1250, 1252 to a server 130 and areported-behavior responsive server 132. The server 130 may be differentserver than one that initially sent the web page 1240. During theexchange of data responsive to the request from the browser 110, thecookie 1252 that is transmitted to the behavior-responsive server 132conveys data such as depicted in FIG. 8. It also may convey other data,such as the time of the last user interest indications in the category,similar to the information depicted in FIG. 6.

FIG. 13 depicts one embodiment of information flow among the behaviorwatcher 120, the browser 110, one or more servers 130, one or morereported-behavior responsive servers 132, persistent memory 122 andcookie memory 124. In this figure, the user indicates their interest ina subject to a browser 110 or similar software. This indication ofinterest typically results in the browser 110 transmitting a searchrequest, URL or similar message 1302 to a server 130. The behaviorwatcher 120 receives the indication of interest 1304 from its monitoringof the browser 110. Optionally, it records the indication of interest1306 to persistent memory 122. Recording to persistent memory may takeplace immediately, periodically or both. For instance, the most recentkeyword, search term, banner click or other indication of interest maybe recorded to memory with a date and time stamp. As described above, aperiodic history of interests may be updated periodically. The behaviorwatcher 120 publishes information about user behavior to cookies 124 orsimilar memory structures that are readily accessible toreported-behavior responsive servers 132 when a browser 110 accesses aserver 130 that triggers a message to a reported-behavior responsiveserver 132 or contacts the server 132 directly. This publishing ofbehavior may include both publishing information about the most recentindication of user interest and publishing categorical informationsummarizing recent user interest.

Use of information published by the behavior watcher 120 to accessiblememory structures is also illustrated in FIG. 13. Typically, a server130 returns a web page 1310 to the browser 110. Depending on theaddresses embedded in the web page 1310, various cookies 1312 areautomatically retrieved by the browser 110. When the web page 1310includes an address of a reported-behavior responsive server 132, one ormore cookies that summarize user behavior and interests observed by theclient-side behavior watcher are transmitted 1314 to the server 132. Inaddition, one or more cookies 1316 may be transmitted to server 130. Thereported-behavior responsive server 132 decodes the cookie 1314,determines what message or ad to return to the browser 110 and sends acustomized message 1320 that is responsive to the reported behavior 1314of the user.

SOME PARTICULAR EMBODIMENTS

The present invention may be practiced as a method or device adapted topractice the method. The same method can be viewed from the perspectiveof a behavior summarizing module optionally including a behaviorobserving module and a summary publishing module. The invention may bean article of manufacture such as media impressed with logic to carryout computer-assisted behavior summarizing optionally including behaviorobserving module and a summary publishing module.

One embodiment is a method of publishing behavioral data from a clientcomputer via network to an authorized domain. This method includessummarizing observed cross-network user behavior data using a behaviorsummarizing module operating on a user's computer, wherein the observedcross-network user behavior includes accessing web sites that are notall associated with a particular user behavior data collection network.Alternatively, cross-network may refer to web sites or other contentdelivery vehicles that are not all associated with a particular portalor a particular virtual storefront or a particular content provider. Thebehavior further includes at least one of a mouse click-through, enterkeystroke or other selection action by the user and at least one keywordderived from context of the selection action. The summarizing includesderiving a categorical metric of the user's degree of interest insubject categories, from the observed cross-network user behavior data,for a multiplicity of subject categories. The method includes publishingthe summarized cross-network user behavior data from the behaviorsummarizing module to a memory structure, wherein the memory structurebecomes accessible via a network to a server at an authorized domainwhen the user uses the network to access the authorized domain. Thismethod may be extended in several ways.

A further aspect of this method includes prioritizing a multiplicity ofsubject categories, selecting a plurality of the multiplicity of subjectcategories, and publishing the summarized cross-network behavior datafor the plurality of subject categories to a single memory structure.This memory structure, optionally, may be a so-called cookie. Anotheraspect of this method may include observing the cross-network userbehavior data using a behavior watching module operating on the user'scomputer. The behavior watching module may be integrated with thebehavior summarizing module. Alternatively, the two behavior-relatedmodules may be separate modules, even using separate hardware.

The cross-network behavioral data may include user selection of one ormore of the following: submission of a search term to a search engine,either using a browser interface or a search engine-specific interface,visiting a portal, visiting a virtual storefront, visiting a contentprovider, entering a URL in a browser address window, selecting a URLhyperlink, or clicking on a banner ad associated with a link. Moregenerally, the user selection may be any navigation among documents thatare linked semantically or by addresses. The meaning given to“cross-network” above also applies here.

Publishing to the memory structure may take place on a periodic basisand/or on an update basis. By an update basis, it is meant that thememory structure update follows detection of the user selection.

Yet another aspect of this method may include receiving at the user'scomputer advertising targeted using the summarized cross-network userbehavior data published to the memory structure that became accessiblewhen the user used the network to access the authorized domain.

The categorizing may include rolling up indicators of visits intonon-overlapping categorical time segments of differing lengths. This maybe accomplished by representing a plurality of granular time segmentswith flags to indicate user category involvement and summarizing aportion of the granular time segments by aggregation to the categoricaltime segments.

Another embodiment is a method of publishing behavioral data collectedby a behavior watching module operating on the user's computer,including summarizing cross-network user behavior data recorded tomemory. The summarizing includes, for a multiplicity of subjectcategories, deriving one, two, three or four of the following items: (1)categorizing recency of visiting a web site in the subject category byevaluating a most recent visit time-date indicator; (2) categorizingfrequency of user visits to web sites in the subject category by rollingup indicators of visits during seven, ten or more time segments or anynumber of categorical time segments, which time segments were recordedon a rolling basis; (3) categorizing recency of selection of a banner adto obtain additional information in the subject category by evaluating amost recent visit time-date indicator; or (4) categorizing frequency ofuser selections of the banner ad to obtain additional information in thesubject category by rolling up indicators of visits during seven, ten ormore time segments or any number of categorical time segments, whichtime segments are tracked on a rolling basis. The method furtherincludes publishing the summarized cross-network behavior data from abehavior summarizing module to memory structure that becomes accessiblevia a network to a server at an authorized domain when the user uses thenetwork to access the authorized domain.

Any and all aspects of the first embodiment may be applied to the secondembodiment.

While the present invention is disclosed by reference to the preferredembodiments and examples detailed above, it is understood that theseexamples are intended in an illustrative rather than in a limitingsense. Computer-assisted processing is implicated in the describedembodiments. It is contemplated that modifications and combinations willreadily occur to those skilled in the art, which modifications andcombinations will be within the spirit of the invention and the scope ofthe following claims.

1. A method of publishing behavioral data collected by a behaviorwatching module operating on a user's computer, including: summarizingcross-network user behavior data recorded to memory, the summarizingincluding, for a multiplicity of subject categories, one or more of (1)categorizing recency of visiting a web site in at least some of thesubject categories, (2) categorizing user category involvement from uservisits to web sites in at least some of the subject categories byrolling up indicators of visits into categorical time segments, (3)categorizing recency of selections of a banner ad to obtain additionalinformation in the subject category by evaluating a most recent visittime-date indicator, or (4) categorizing user category involvement fromuser selections of a banner ad to obtain additional information in atleast some of the subject categories by rolling up indicators of visitsinto categorical time segments; and publishing the summarizedcross-network behavior data from a behavior summarizing module to amemory structure that becomes accessible via a network to a server at anauthorized domain when the user accesses the authorized domain.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the categorizing the user categoryinvolvement includes rolling up the indicators of visits intonon-overlapping categorical time segments of differing lengths.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the categorizing user category involvementincludes representing granular time segments with flags to indicate usercategory involvement during the granular time segment and summarizing aportion of the granular time segments by aggregation into categoricaltime segments.
 4. The method of claim 1, further including prioritizinga multiplicity of subject categories, selecting a plurality of themultiplicity of subject categories, and publishing the summarizedcross-network behavior data for the plurality of subject categories to asingle memory structure.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein thecross-network behavioral data includes visits to a plurality of websites or selections of banner ads that are not all associated with aparticular behavioral data collection network.
 6. The method of claim 1,wherein the cross-network behavioral data includes visits to a pluralityof web sites or selections of banner ads that are not all associatedwith a particular portal.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein thecross-network behavioral data includes visits to a plurality of websites or selections of banner ads that are not all associated with aparticular virtual storefront.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein thecross-network behavioral data includes visits to a plurality of websites or selections of banner ads that are not all associated with aparticular content provider.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein thecross-network behavioral data includes behavioral data corresponding toa plurality of visits to web sites or selections of banner ads that arenot all associated with a particular behavioral data collection network.10. The method of claim 1, wherein publishing takes place on a periodicbasis.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein publishing takes place on anupdate basis, after one or more web sites have been visited or one ormore banner ads have been selected.
 12. The method of claim 1, furtherincluding receiving at the user's computer advertising targeted usingthe summarized cross-network user behavior data published to the memorystructure that became accessible when the user used the network toaccess the authorized domain.
 13. A machine readable memory includinginstructions to carry out the method of claim
 1. 14. A device includingone or more servers having logic and resources adapted to practice themethod of claim
 1. 15. A method of publishing behavioral data from aclient computer via a network to an authorized domain using a cookie,including: observing cross-network user behavior data using a behaviorwatching module operating on a user's computer, wherein thecross-network user behavior includes accessing web sites that are notall associated with a particular user behavior data collection network,observing at least one of a mouse click-through, enter keystroke orother selection action, and deriving at least one keyword from contextof the selection action; for a particular cross-network user behavior,selecting a subject category from a multiplicity of subject categoriesand deriving a summary metric of the user's degree of involvement in theselected subject category; and publishing the summary metric from thebehavior summarizing module to a memory structure.
 16. The method ofclaim 15, wherein data in the memory structure is periodically reportedvia a network to a server.
 17. A method of publishing behavioral datafrom a client computer via a network to an authorized domain, including:summarizing observed cross-network user behavior data using a behaviorsummarizing module operating on a user's computer, wherein the observedcross-network user behavior includes access to web sites that are notall associated with a particular content provider, and at least onekeyword derived from context of the access; wherein the summarizing fora particular observed cross-network user behavior includes deriving asummary metric of the user's degree of interest in subject categoriesfrom a multiplicity of subject categories; and publishing the summarymetric from the behavior summarizing module to a memory structure. 18.The method of claim 17, further including prioritizing the multiplicityof subject categories, selecting a plurality of the multiplicity ofsubject categories, and publishing the summarized cross-network behaviordata for the plurality of subject categories to a single memorystructure.
 19. The method of claim 17, wherein the memory structure isaccessible via a network to a server at an authorized domain when theuser accesses the authorized domain.
 20. The method of claim 17, whereinthe cross-network behavioral data includes behavioral data correspondingto a plurality of visits to web sites or selections of banner ads thatare accessed using more than one browser on the user's computer.
 21. Themethod of claim 17, further including receiving at the user's computeradvertising targeted using the summarized cross-network user behaviordata published to the memory structure that became accessible when theuser used the network to access the authorized domain.
 22. A machinereadable memory including instructions to carry out the method of claim17.
 23. A user's computer having logic and resources adapted to practicethe method of claim 17.